The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-07-02
6IGHTLESS CADETS.
Blind Boys Going Through the Manual OF
Arms With Great Precision.

Blind Boys Going Through the Manual OF
Arms With Great Precision.
Sixty boys in military uniform, whose
sightless eyes were blind to the sunlight
which trickled through the leaves of
the trees above their heads, and who
could not recognize the faces of the
friends and kinsmen who surrounded
them, marched and drilled recently in
the grounds of the Pennsylvania Insti-
tuition for the Instruction of the Blind
with the precision of veterans. The
drilling of the cadets is feature of this
institution, and it is an original feature,
to which there is none similar in this
country. The patience, the study and
time spent upon this branch of instruc-
ton presents a reward in the improved
bearing OF the little soldiers, and in the
health which the exercise gives them.
When the cadets marched from the
gymnasium to the playground it was
almost impossible to believe the minia-
ture miltiamen were blind. Their
shoulders were squared, their heads
erect, and their step was firm and regu-
lar. The muzzles of their muskets made
an unwavering line of light, and the
red stripes on their blue trouser legs
rose and fell with the regularity of a
machine. 1t was the final full-dress
drill of the cadets, and all of their
friends and relations and the friends of
the institution were gathered around
the walls of the playground. But the
applause which saluted the cadets as
they filed past Was the only knowledge
they had Of the presence of hundreds of
spectators. The left hand of each boy
rested, as he marched, on the left
shoulder of the one preceding him. The
first boy in each company could see.
Commandant Major Harry w, King
directed the battalion to 'ground
arms" and at the word every gun
touched the ground at the same mo-
ment. The cadets separated and stood
at two yards distance. Then at the
spoken command they went through
calisthenic drill, clapping their hands,
raising their arms and swinging them
like so many automatons worked by the
same piece of mechanism.
1t was only when the boys bent over
to touch the ground with their finger
tips that there was any irregularity;
then the difference. in height of the
cadets made it impossible for the long
limbed boys to recover themselves as
quickly as did their younger comrades.
The guns were picked up and the COM
mand was given, "Twos, threes and
tours, forward" The ranks broke and
there was a scattering movement to the
right; the right hands and arms of the
cadets held their muskets firm, and the
left hand moved anxiously in search of
companions shoulder. By some in
stinct finer than sight itself, the moment
the wandering fingers of cadet
touched the person of comrade he
seemed to know instantly that it was
the man he sought.
In a few seconds the battalion was
formed in close ranks of two. AS the
ranks marched and countermarched,
JlOhG dliIl ICIOl lHC(l, VIC OIllCI iHuluGGS
of the institution sat and stood in groups
around the walls, guessing from the
words of command what their COM
panions were doing. Among them was
large, heavily built man, who sat
with one hand over his sightless eyes
and with the other clasped in both of
those of little girl. She called him
father, and as the drill went on told
him as graphically as a child could
what her black, pretty eyes saw before
her, and how and what the cadets were
doing. :
At the conclusion of the drill Acting
Principal Frank Battles called from the
ranks those of the boys who had won
the nine gold and bronze medals which
different friends of the institution have
awarded annually to the best soldiers
of the battalion. 1t was pretty and
pathetic picture the young soldiers
made as they stepped forward, with
their faces flushed with pleasure, and
saluted while the medals were pinned
upon their breasts. And it was
still more pathetic to see them when
they had been been lead back to the
ranks nervously finger the new decora-
tions, to read, if possible, their beauty
through their finger tips.-PhiladeLphiG